This article explores the issue of identity as revealed by the discourse of two trainee teachers' microteaching classes which formed part of their vocational Masters programme in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. Transcripts are used to explore possible modifications in ESL trainees' microteaching talk in comparison with their talk in a "real" teaching practice classroom in Hungary to establish possible changing identities. The study uses two approaches to focus, up close, on the lesson extracts; first, an applied institutional conversation analysis approach, specifically using Walsh's Self Evaluation of Teacher Talk framework and second, Zimmerman's identity categories. Furthermore, the two trainees are interviewed about their perception of their possible different identities in both teaching contexts. The data indicate that microteaching teacher talk breaks away from the situated identity position of teacher-learner more often than the trainees' talk in the real classroom and that a reversal of situated identity or transportable identity can occur instead. I argue that by encouraging trainees to use a wider range of identities in the teaching practice classroom, they will allow their learners more interactional space and more meaningful communication will take place. This study has relevance to the body of literature on the concept of teacher identity, to research on classroom interaction and teacher development and the relatively under-researched area of the microteaching classroom.